Monday, November 19, 2012

In the flesh: Kate Moss shows off her swallow tattoos on holiday in Saint Tropez, France

Her figure and iconic looks have already earned her an estimated £48 million.
Now Kate Moss has revealed her supermodel body is quite literally a work of art – as she has a tattoo inked by Lucian Freud just above her bottom.
The 38-year-old befriended Freud – widely considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century – when he painted her in the nude in 2002 while she was pregnant with her daughter Lila Grace.

Miss Moss has told how Freud offered to draw two tiny swallows at the base of her spine

In an interview in America, Miss Moss told how Freud – who learned how to give homemade tattoos using permanent ink and a scalpel during a brief stint in the Merchant Navy during the Second World War – offered to draw two tiny swallows at the base of her spine.
'He told me about when he was in the navy, when he was 19 or something, and he used to do all of the tattoos for the sailors,' she said.
'And I said, “Oh my God, that's amazing.” And he went, “I can do you one. What would you like? Would you like creatures of the animal kingdom?”

Kate Moss with the artist Lucian Freud, who inked a tattoo on her bottom

'I said I liked birds and he replied, “I've done birds. I've got it in my book.” And he pointed down at a painting of a chicken upside down in a bucket. And I said, “No, I'm not having that.”
'And then he said, “Maybe I should just do you.” And I thought, I'm not going to have a girl on my a***. So we decided to do a flock of birds.
'I mean, it's an original Freud. I wonder how much a collector would pay for that? A few million?
'If it all goes horribly wrong I could get a skin graft and sell it! It's probably the only one on skin that's still around, because when he was in the navy he was about 19. Can you imagine?'